AURA SEMINALIS

Often, when you see a prolific artist in the progressive electronic subgenre you are going to find a number of long drones with very few differences so that one album is hardly distinguishable from another.

This is not the case with Stefano Musso, aka Alio Die (latin: "Another Day"). His music fits very well in its genre, with long compositions made mainly of keyboard soundscapes very ambient oriented, but it's not just a guy which plays at home with synhts and sequencers. This is an artist which puts some effort in each composition and even though his work is pure ambient electronic his music reminds not only to the Tangerine Dream of the pink period as one may expect, but also to Vangelis, Oldfield and likes in their most peaceful and dreamy sides.

I have discovered this artist on PA, from a review that made me curious and this is the first Alio Die's album that I try.

It's not a surprise because this is progressive electronic, exactly what is written on his PA page. The surprise is the quality of this work. The album should be part of a series called "Castles Sonorisations" which is inteded as a musical description of medieval castles, and the medieval ambient is expressed by the "ooh" voices which suggest the idea of monks in a monastery.

The first three tracks are part of a suite entitled "Sine Tempore" (Timeless) and the remaining two are "Aura Seminalis" (latin: "Seminal Radiance", but Aura has a lot of meanings, including "Breath"). Listening better I'm not 100% sure that the voices are not human. No singers are credited on the album but they may come from sampling. This kind of sound sends my mind to Vangelis ("Mayflower" from The Friends of Mr. Cairo to say a title).

An advise: there is no kind of drums or percussion in this album, no guitars or bass. This is a totally electronic experience and one of the best that I have hear on this genre recently.

I am between three and four stars, honestly, as I realy like this album, but I don't know if I can consider it "essential". It's surely better than most of the TD 80s output that I'm in the process of reviewing during this period. Anyway, I'm going for 4 stars as "eyecatcher" as this artist deserves, in my opinion, a bit of attentions from us proggers.

Long forgotten architectural temples in Alio Die's musical imagination.

Diaphanous, wide open structures, filled to the brim with invisible threading choruses, slow single string chords, droning and nostalgic melody lines processed in his completely distinguishable personal music language.

Alio Die's "Aura Seminalis" 2008, concept is quiet well explained in the previous PA review, so I would not dwell into it. The fact that it all comes to a masterful music reinterpretation of physical structures, will reinforce the "concrete" and airy spaciousness of the 5 music compositions included in this work.

Besides that, as I have insisted, Alio Die sounds like Alio Die, therefore the musical comparisons act more as referentials, than comparisons as such. So in able to describe his music to newcomers, let me point out some references.

Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179) and Perotin's (1160-1230) sacred hypnotic music comes to mind at first. Then the Baroque organ music figures of J.S. Bach and the italian Antonio.L. Vivaldi's symphonic works, also Baroque. Enhanced with the flowing nature of early Renaissance music and some splashes of Indian's music mysterious under-tones.

In today's world, Alio Die compresses all these influences, strips them naked and then mixes up these powerful "powders" to the point of almost invisibility, yet perfectly structured and solid, as enticing.

As for prog audiences, well that's another ride! It all depends on your personal likings, but if you know and like the people mentioned above, well you are in for an amazing hypnotic experience!

**** 4.5 PA stars.

PD available in "i-Tunes".

One of Stefano Musso's many solo works from the 2000s (there were eight that we know of), the end of the decade finds the maestro experimenting with Gregorian chant-like voices as well as his usual heavily-treated zithers and synthesizers to create his Indian-like drone sounds. The music contained here sounds like mediæval calls to prayer in empty cathedrals or abandoned mosques. 1. "Sine Tempore Part I" (16:47) heavily treated, muted male chant voices are swirling around in slow arpeggi before sustained strings sounds join in. In the fifth minute, higher pitched "angel whisps" join in. Everything quiets down a bit in the seventh minute as lower pitched notes slowly swirl around each other from the voice, violin, and "horn"- synth departments. In the eleventh minute, multi-sex choir dominates--especially in the upper "female" registers. Cool construction and execution. Blade Runner-like horn synth joins in for the final couple of minutes. Very engaging and hypnotic. (31/35)

2. "Sine Tempore Part II (8:47) male chant voices projected into the higher registers with a high degree of echo and response--from cello-like sub-layers of instruments--swirling and circling, rising and falling, droning and echoing for the first three minutes before changing the soundscape to one of more sparsely populated, "violin"-led spaciousness. Voices return to the fore in the sixth and seventh minutes--though more garbled and warbled--until slow decay and diminishment over the final minute or so. (17.25/20)

3. "Sine Tempore Part III" (7:10) a slow moving rondo of arpeggi from a male Gregorian chant-like voice and slowed and reversed and accelerated and reversed sustained zither and violin notes and chords. (13.25/15)

4. "Aura Seminalis Part I" (5:43) Mellotron?! with heavily-treated reverberating zither notes and chords and zither incidentals mixed in for good measure. (8.25/10)

5. "Aura Seminalis Part II (23:03) Soaring "string-horn" notes and drone sounds swirl and rise like a church organ from a long-forgotten land and time. The melody line is constant and repeated for the first three minutes before receding over the distant horizon to be replaced by the slow parade of a Silk Road caravan now carrying a similar but different tune and sound--one that is growing closer, moving toward us, celebrating with their nasally reed instruments--until passing by, receding into the behind us while other swirling organs and horns take their turns in the parade, passing us from right to left, one (group) after the other. The processional is very visual, and very cool! In the thirteenth minute, the passed caravan is now a mirage--sounds floating high above us in a way that loses pitch certainty and seems to warble and wobble in a kind of celestial echo. But then, in the sixteenth minute a more modern, fuller, industrial barrage comes our way. A new procession? A different culture? Nasally reed instruments crossing in the opposite direction at the same time would seem to indicate that two different cultures are crossing paths (apparently, peacefully; perhaps even oblivious to one another). Cool experience! (39.5/45)

Overall a very peaceful, relaxing listening experience--one that could provide for quite a nice REM sleep.

B/four stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you love meditative electronica.